How MJ Cole’s ‘Sincere’ set the stage for UK garage’s next generation

Those first eight bars are unmistakable — ambient pads, ghostly vocal fragments and a crescendo that takes you right back to a time when 2-step reigned supreme. By the summer of 2000, UK garage had claimed its first UK No. 1, found a breakout star in Craig David, and established Ayia Napa as its answer to Ibiza. But when ‘Sincere’ entered the UK top 20 that August, it displayed a musicality rare among its peers. The chord progressions and piano motifs were rooted in jazz, the vocal phrasing — improvised snippets of sound — had more in common with the soft, emotive leanings of soulful house or R&B. ‘Sincere’ was a dreamlike slow-burn that prioritised texture and groove over energy.

“I guess, as a record, it’s a combination of great vocals, and a very simple, very warm musical backdrop,” Matthew Firth Coleman, AKA MJ Cole, tells us at DJ Mag HQ. “It’s about being true, being sincere, and there being no pretence. It came from a very true place within me.”

‘Sincere’ — a track that nearly never saw the light of day — regularly ranks high on classic UKG lists. Cole’s classical training and sound engineer background brought real depth to the production, but timing was also on his side. As UKG hit the mainstream and major labels scrambled for talent, he was perfectly positioned to showcase the genre’s subtler side. His debut album, also called ‘Sincere’, was one of the first garage LPs to gain both commercial and critical success, while garage remixes for a slew of mainstream talent reaffirmed his place among the key architects of the sound.

Raised in South-West London, Cole’s early musical memories revolve around him attempting to replicate classic songs on the piano. His parents put him down for piano lessons aged five and it wasn’t long until he entered his first piano competition at Hounslow Music Festival, which he won. He went on to play the oboe — “I kind of classical’d it up to the max,” he admits — and won a scholarship to the Royal College of Music. This was followed by a music degree at City University. “It was very hands on,” he remembers. “They had great studios and tutors from Radio 1 and Radio 3, loads of sound recording, psychology of music, music therapy, sound synthesis. When I left there I knew I wanted to do music, so I applied for a job as a runner.”